Pope Francis Urges Action On Migrant Deaths

04/19/2015 06:41 am ET
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Jun 19, 2015

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VATICAN CITY, April 19 (Reuters) - Pope Francis, speaking after some 700 migrants were feared dead in the Mediterranean, on Sunday appealed to the international community to take swift and decisive action to avoid more tragedies.

"They are men and women like us, our brothers seeking a better life, starving, persecuted, wounded, exploited, victims of war. They were looking for a better life," he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his Sunday noon address.

"Faced with such a tragedy, I express my most heartfelt pain and promise to remember the victims and their families in prayer," he said, departing from his prepared text.

"I make a heartfelt appeal to the international community to react decisively and quickly to see to it that such tragedies are not repeated," he said, before asking the crowd to pray "for these brothers and sisters."

The latest disaster happened when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight, in one of the worst disasters seen in the Mediterranean migrant crisis, officials said on Sunday.. (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Pope Francis' Best Photos

Pope Francis' Best Photos

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Kissing Prisoners' Feet

A mere two weeks after he was announced as pontiff, Francis washed and kissed the feet of 12 prisoners incarcerated in Rome as part of the traditional Holy Thursday rite. The unorthodox component of the ceremony was the inclusion of two women, one of whom was a Muslim. This show of acceptance and compassion was just a hint at what was to come, as the pope has continued to make statements about the importance of interfaith understanding as well as the importance of a greater role for women in the church. Francis sent personal Eid al-Fitr holiday greetings to Muslims around the world, rather than relying on his office to do so in a show of care and good will that hasn't happened since Pope John Paul II sent a similar personal message in 1991.